It may seem like an odd pairing on paper, but one of Stone Temple Pilots' biggest champions early in their career was Dave Mustaine, who handpicked the band to join Megadeth on tour during STP's initial support of their debut album Core.

We spoke with Mustaine in 2015 (seen in the video below) about that pairing and he recalled being turned on to the band when he was asked to review the Core record for a magazine.

"I was listening to it and I thought, 'These guys are gonna be massive' because they've got a sound that's very similar to a lot of the great bands that are in the alternative scene right now," recalled Mustaine. "The more I listened to it, the more I grew to respect [Scott Weiland]'s vocals and I thought that Robert [DeLeo], his playing was really great, too."

During our recent chat with Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo for the Core 25th anniversary deluxe reissue, he praised Mustaine for his insight and support in those early days while the band was trying to make a name for themselves.

"Dave was a real gentleman to us, man. He was very, very kind. He was very loving and very supportive. He may not want me to relinquish that kind of information about him, but he was very loving and supportive and just a great person to us," stated DeLeo.

"Those early days, no one knew who we were and we were playing arenas opening for Megadeth to people filing in. We'd be on our third song and the place is about only a third full. You're looking like an 8,000-seat room and there's like maybe 1,000, 2,000 people there and people are filing in. The people that were in there were like pimple-faced boys with Iron Maiden shirts giving us the finger. It sucked," DeLeo recalled with a laugh. "But I'm going to tell you something: Mustaine saw that night after night and I'm gonna tell you something about Dave. He walked out onstage and the place goes f--king crazy and he grabs the mic and goes, 'You listen you f--kers, I handpicked this band and they're my friends. You better show some f--king respect,' and he walked off. [laughs]"

DeLeo recalls, "What I spoke about earlier, where there were like, 500-1000 people in there maybe when we were on. By the time 'Plush' was out [as a single], they were full. The arenas were full. People were singing our songs and it changed dramatically."

The 25th anniversary of Stone Temple Pilots' Core album is this Friday (Sept. 29) and the band is releasing a massive deluxe edition package through Rhino to celebrate the milestone. Read our interview with Dean DeLeo about the set and get your pre-orders in here.